At the present state of technology it is well known that the dielectric behaviour of such as plant, fruit, animal and human tissue corresponds to broad features in their composition and structure. Recent studies have revealed that the cell is a highly ordered dynamic entity which acts holistically with respect to chemical and physical events within a living body, and the existence of domains in the cytoplasm is a general rule. These domains are electrically polarised units of ordered, packed biopolymers in "biowater". The different organs in a living organism, with compartmental similarity and harmonised metabolism, have basic differences in domain arrangements which lead to a difference in dielectric responses. A disease transformation in a living body which has a viral origin or resulting from the action of toxins and other chemicals also changes the domain structure and hence the polarisation and dielectric response of the tissue or cell.
A domain is herein defined as a region of a system, or a region of a substance, comprising atoms or molecules which can be thought of as a single entity; this single entity being responsive to electric or magnetic fields and includes such a system having a plurality of these entities. Examples of a domain include; a ferroelectric or ferromagnetic domain, a cluster of atoms or molecules, an organic cell, a bacterium, a virus, a cluster or collection of cells.
A domain group is a collection of said domains having the same response to an electric or magnetic field.
In the past, precise measurement of parameters of domains were inconceivable due to limitations of the instruments. Measurements of relative dielectric permittivity, energy dissipation and electrical impedance are not possible due to very high values of electrical conductance overshadowing real kinetic characteristics. Existing methods of measurement are mostly based on impedance bridges, which are inadequate at frequencies below 100 Hz due to noise instability, electrode polarisation and the time required to obtain balanced conditions. These bridges yield relative permittivity, energy dissipation and electrical impedance values only at discrete frequencies and therefore each frequency setting causes disruption of sequential measurements. The dielectric properties of living tissue from bodies will change when they are taken out of their natural environment. Dead tissue will show a greater change with changes of cell morphology. Conductivity measurement is mostly carried out by D.C. electrometers of wide current range, often from 10.sup.-14 Ampere to a few milliAmpere. This range being covered by switching to sequential decade ranges with a mismatch of measured current values. A.C. and D.C. measurements require different apparatus, separate sample settings and long time switching intervals from one instrument to the next. The morphological changes of a cell are much faster, so the obtained parameters will refer to different intracellular structures resulting in an incorrect correlation between these parameters. Sample size limitations sometimes up to a few milligrams reduces electrode sensitivity and field noise overshadows the results for fine structural studies.